The idea is called Ticket Forward and offers regular theatre-goers the chance to purchase seats that will then be tallied up and given to local charities focussed on people who feel excluded from society and wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to get culture into their lives. It’s aimed especially at the homeless and unemployed, people on low incomes and victims of domestic violence.

This is the first scheme of its type in the UK, though there have been similar ideas in Continental Europe. Stefania Bochicchio, who has initiated Ticket Forward, compares it to the FairTrade and CrueltyFree initiatives and suggests it could be rolled out in theatres across London and beyond. It has also recently been endorsed by Sir Patrick Stewart (and the name has been trademarked).

Bochicchio said “We often talk and hear about social exclusion; this idea will go a fair way towards providing more than shelter and food to people that need to be taken back to the folds of society.”

The trial has started off encouragingly, with the first woman to book two tickets also paying for a third under the Ticket Forward banner. That ticket will then be considered ‘complimentary’ for someone already signed up on the list, rather than a free handout that has to be asked for.